THE SEARCH FOR SCORPION: 

 PHOTOGRAPHIC AND OTHER SENSORS 



R. B. Patterson 



Naval Research Laboratory- 

 Washington, D. C. 20390 



ABSTRACT 



A multi-sensored Instrument vehicle towed by the USNS 

 MIZAR (T-AGOR-ll) located the USS SCORPION (SSN 589) as it 

 had located the USS THRESHER (SSN 593) approximately four 

 years earlier. In both searches, the magnetometer was the 

 most useful non-photographic sensor, though the presence 

 of natural magnetic anomalies reduced the effectiveness of 

 this equipment in the SCORPION area. Two side looking 

 sonar systems were used in the search, but they lacked the 

 ability to discriminate between natural bottom discontin- 

 uities and artifacts. A radiation detector was also used 

 with negative results. No non-optical sensor presently 

 available has the ability to classify bottom contacts, and 

 until such a sensor is developed, towed camera systems will 

 remain the best tools for ocean floor search. Since the 

 loss of THRESHER, the search effectiveness of underwater 

 camera systems has been greatly improved. The use of 

 wide angle lenses with hemispherical windows has resulted 

 in a better utilization of the short ranges inherent in 

 present photographic systems. During the five months of 

 the SCORPION search, the Naval Research Laboratory camera 

 system took 142,000 photographs and logged about 1,000 

 hours of bottom time. 



INTRODUCTION 



The lost submarine THRESHER (SSN 593) was relocated on 

 26 June 1964 with a multi-sensored instrument vehicle towed 

 by the Naval Research Laboratory's ship, the USNS MIZAR 

 (T-AGOR-ll). The lost submarine SCORPION (SSN 589) was re- 

 located on 28 October I968 with a multi-sensored instrument 

 towed by NRL's ship, the MIZAR. If these two statements do 

 not indicate progress during the intervening 52 months, the 

 indications are misleading. There has been enough progress 

 to make possible a five month search for SCORPION which would 

 have required five years using the equipment and techniques 

 which found THRESHER. It is the purpose of this paper to 

 describe some of these improvements while reporting on the 

 effectiveness of various sensors used in the search. 



TOWED VEHICLE 



The towed vehicle, commonly called the "fish", is shown 

 in Figure 1. This view was obtained before all the equipment 



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